The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing program for managing data stored on HDD or the like.
In recent years, there has been much development in the network environment and data is often shared between multiple terminals. For example, a folder may be setup on the shared server on a network, and shared data is saved in this folder and the data can be viewed from a plurality of terminals. Because the shared data may include highly confidential data such as personal information, in the case where the data is shared on a plurality of terminals, sufficient security measures must be established such that the data is not stolen by a third party.
An example of the security technology used when accessing the data saved in the shared server on the network include the technology described in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-102948 (Hereinafter referred as Patent Document 1). In the technology described in Patent Document 1, when the document storage server is accessed, user authentication is done using the account information, and if there is no problem with user authentication, access to the document data stored in the document storage server is permitted. In this manner, theft of the document data is prevented by performing user authentication using the account information.
In addition, instead of a server on a network, multiple people may share a digital multifunction peripheral (one with copy, print and fax function) which has a HDD (hard disk drive) loaded therein. In the case where multiple people use the HDD of the multifunction peripheral, portions of the HDD may be assigned to the user as boxes and image data read by a scanner is saved in the boxes. Because in some cases, the image data in the box is confidential data, when the image data file inside the box, or the box itself which is the storage location for the image data is accessed, data theft by a third party is prevented by requiring a prescribed password.
However, if the account information or the password itself is stolen by a third party, the third party may use the account information and pretend to be an access-authorized person, and thus can access the data stored on the server. That is to say, a sufficient security system is not established by simply using account information and password.